Audio 53

  GRAMMAR
Reflexive pronouns are pronouns that end in “–elf” or “–elves” and they are used when the subject and the complement of the verb are the same. Each pronoun has a reflexive pronoun.

Study the table

Personal Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns

Examples

Singular

I

You

He

She

It

Myself

Yourself

Himself

Herself

Itself

I type the letter myself.

You phone her yourself.

He sent the e-mails himself.

She herself cancels the meeting.

The projector itself started to work.

Plural

We

You

They

Ourselves

Yourselves

Themselves

We finished the project ourselves.

Workers, don’t limit yourselves.

They themselves wrote the article.


We use reflexive pronouns with the majority of transitive verbs, but the more common are:

a. Blame
b. Cut
c. Enjoy
d. Help
e. Hurt
f. Introduce
g. Believe
h. Teach

Transitive verbs:

They are action verbs that have an object to receive that action.

Example:

I         cut         some          lemons.

         transitive verb                     object

Observe the examples:

a. Don’t blame yourself. It could happen to anyone.
b. - How did she hurt herself?
    - With the stapler.

We use ‘By’ + a reflexive pronoun to mean “alone” or “without company or help”.

a. John deals with difficult clients by himself.
b. The new Manager Assistant has never organized a trip for the staff by herself. We don’t use reflexive pronouns to talk about actions that people normally do by themselves. Observe the chart: